According to market research firm Hartman Group, consumer loyalty is shifting -- from products and brands, to the experiences offered by retailers -- in a radical transformation that started before the recession.
I think the change is much bigger than that.
Best Buy is going to start retailing an electric motorcycle sometime this fall, in an effort to repurpose some of the space available in its cavernous stores. I think the bigger opportunity is to use that space to deliver new and different services.
I'm having a hard time keeping a straight face as I read some of the latest commentary on the utility and measurement of social media.
It's not that the folks doing the commenting aren't really smart and well-intentioned. Rather, it's just that I can't help but be reminded of participants at a UFO conference, presenting detailed analyses of smudged photos and heartfelt abductee testimonies. The sincerity of evangelists doesn't make their conclusions any more true, or believable.
I think the intimate relationship players have with videogames makes engagement with a brand seem like a bad blind date, but in both cases you've got to know the rules. What if one of the futures coming after our miracle of the Internet and the madness of our economics is a model of living and investing we last saw about a hundred years ago?
Just change the names, technologies du jour, and consider:
I read an interesting article in yesterday's New York Times on how job applicants can cover-up a "job-hopping" history. I just don't understand why it would matter.
Aren't all the rules pretty much moot by now?
When Procter & Gamble lowered its sales outlook in the middle of last month, it offered up the most traditional, generic excuses for what was wrong...and what it intended to do about it. The one novel item in the announcement garnered no more media scrutiny than the lame rationale that surrounded it.
The company is suffering from pantry deloading.